Chatbot

10_66

I opened a savings account today and, as with all official documents, the application was made using my given first name.  I have never had any dealings with this company before. I always go by a family "pet" name, quite different from my given name.  I had to go on a live chat to query something after opening the account, and they started the chat by using my family "pet" name, not the name I opened the account with, and I definitely hadn't used it during the chat! It's not on any of the documents I uploaded.  I am rather concerned how they would know this.  Has anyone got any ideas how this could have occurred, please?

km1500

do you mean the name you applied for the account was for example Frederick Johanne Blogs and the chatbot called you by your pet name Wolfy ?

or was it a closer match eg your name is James and it called you Jim?

10_66

It was sort of between the two.  Has some of the same letters, but it's not something that they would work out from that (ie, not a Jim for James, or Sam for Samantha etc).

Newcad

They probably got if off your Faceache account or similar.
ie. a websearch/social media search for 'What does this persons friends/family call them'. It's called 'scraping' and is done using AI.

They think it makes them sound more friendly if they use your pet name, many think it's just creepy that they are able to do that now.
But the information is there in public view for anyone who cares to look, and AI can look extremely quickly.

AI is with us and is all-seeing of what is posted on the internet/web..
It's well past Nineteen Eighty Four and AI is your 'Big Brother'.

10_66

Newcad said:

They probably got if off your Faceache account or similar.
ie. a websearch/social media search for 'What does this persons friends/family call them'. It's called 'scraping' and is done using AI.

They think it makes them sound more friendly if they use your pet name, many think it's just creepy that they are able to do that now.
But the information is there in public view for anyone who cares to look, and AI can look extremely quickly.

AI is with us and is all-seeing of what is posted on the internet/web..
It's well past Nineteen Eighty Four and AI is your 'Big Brother'.

I could understand that if I had any social media accounts, but I don’t have any at all, no Facebook, X, Instagram etc.

PHK

Part of opening an account is an ID check. 

One if the fields is  an also known as field. (Aka)

I suspect at some point you've been recorded under your nickname. For example, Margarets often are know as Peggy. 

Other than that I can't see how they'd now unless you told them. 

10_66

PHK said:

Part of opening an account is an ID check. 

One if the fields is  an also known as field. (Aka)

I suspect at some point you've been recorded under your nickname. For example, Margarets often are know as Peggy. 

Other than that I can't see how they'd now unless you told them. 

It definitely isn’t that, I’ve never used anything other than my given name on any accounts or official documents, not even as an “also known as”.

PHK

In that case you are going to need to ask them.